Charlize Theron attends CTAOP’s Night Out on June 26, 2021 in Universal City, California – Photo: Rich Fury / Getty Images
Charlize Theron attends CTAOP’s Night Out on June 26, 2021 in Universal City, California – Photo: Rich Fury / Getty Images
Now you’ve done it, Charlize Theron: You’ve set the DA off! The Blues aren’t best pleased with the Benoni-born Hollywood actress, after she jokingly remarked that Afrikaans was an ‘unhelpful, dying language’ spoken by just a handful of people.
Is Afrikaans a dying language? Charlize Theron stirs the pot
Although she has earned praise from the likes of the EFF, many South Africans – and indeed, the Afrikaans community – are livid with the comments she made on a podcast this week. Since Wednesday, Charlize Theron has been a top Twitter trend.
Of course, Afrikaans is actually her mother tongue. Theron stated during her interview that she didn’t actually learn English until she was 19. However, her career has relied almost exclusively on her second language – and politicians fear she may have forgotten her roots.
DA extend Parliamentary invite to Charlize Theron
The DA are upset by the utterances, and served to remind the A-lister that Afrikaans is spoken ‘by over seven million people’ in Mzansi. The party also invited Charlize Theron to attend a session of Parliament, in order to learn more about SA’s indigenous languages.
“It seems to have been a while since Charlize Theron visited her native country, where Afrikaans is now the most diverse as well as the third largest language, spoken by more than seven million people of all backgrounds.”
“The DA would like to invite Charlize Theron to a Parliamentary session when she is back in the country, so that she can see how we ensure that our beautiful indigenous languages, including Afrikaans, find expression and are protected in the halls of Parliament.” | DA statement
Calls to protect Afrikaans ‘from ANC’
Veronica van Dyk is the Shadow Deputy Minister for Sports and Culture. She went one further, and asked Charlize Theron to play an active role in ‘protecting’ Afrikaans. The politician is concerned that the ruling ANC is constantly ‘slandering’ the language itself.
“While it is very unfortunate that so much energy is spent by the ANC to slander Afrikaans while our country’s economy and infrastructure crumbles, the DA will continue to stand up for language rights.”
“Given her apparent concern about the risk of Afrikaans ‘dying out’, we now invite Ms. Theron to engage in discussion with the DA on her next visit, so that we can work together to protect her mother tongue from the ANC.” | Veronica van Dyk
